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Duke team studies retinal scan as a potential biomarker for Alzheimer's disease

Duke team studies retinal scan as a potential biomarker for Alzheimer's disease

Friday, September 8, 2017

A multidisciplinary team including Duke ophthalmologists, medical and undergraduate students, and James Burke, MD, PhD, are evaluating the use of a retinal scan to easily and non-invasively diagnose Alzheimer's disease before a person develops symptoms.

The team will examine a technique called noninvasive optical coherence tomography (OCT) angiography on the Zeiss Cirrus 5000 with AngioPlex machine. This technique can be performed in a few minutes and already shows a distinction between patients with and without Alzheimer's disease (see photo - left-hand versus right-hand images).

The ongoing prospective case-control study has enrolled 11 case patients and six controls so far, but it needs additional funding to continue. If you are interested in supporting this research, contact Jillian Ream at 919-385-3100 or jillian.ream@duke.edu.

A version of this story originally appeared on the Duke Opthalmology Department's website. Read it here.